Have you seen those commercials from The Bay? They start off making you feel all warm and fuzzy . . . “Christmas isn’t about what you get” . . . and then they hit you with it: “Give the Perfect Gift.” No warm fuzzies there. To have a perfect Christmas, you’ve got to spend a lot of money. According to The Bay.

Who out there is having this “perfect Christmas?” Those of us still in university spend most of the Christmas season freaking out about exams and papers, trying to recover from too much Christmas partying, then dealing with hectic holiday travel and finding time to go Christmas shopping for about ten million people. Not to mention that by the end of the semester, cash is typically running a little short. (At least if you’re me. I could never get my student loan to stretch quite that far!) Now that I’m out of school and working, I’m still not exactly buying people big-screen TVs for Christmas or X-boxes or Wiis. Give me a few years to start raking in that kind of cash . . . And Christmas is still hectic, still stressful.

We all remember how it felt to be a kid at Christmas. Enjoying the carols, the lights, the snow, and thinking Santa would take care of the rest. Christmas was probably far from perfect. Maybe as a kid you didn’t get all the gifts you wanted. (One year Santa wrote me a letter . . . apologizing for not getting me a Cabbage Patch doll because his “elves had run out of material to make them with”. More like my mom didn’t get up early enough to stand in the line at ToysRUs where they were selling out at super speed). But as a kid, you didn’t care. You just enjoyed the season. The magic of it all.

So screw the “perfect Christmas” that they’re trying to sell us on T.V! There’s no such thing. Just chill out and have a good one. If you’re really feeling warm and fuzzy, enjoy the things that make Christmas what it is. Your family, friends, and traditions. They won’t be perfect either. And that’s OK!

Peace on Earth. Merry Christmas to all and I’ll see you in the New Year.